Majeed's lawyer Mark Milliken-Smith QC said he was first introduced to talk about fixing by Butt, a former Pakistan captain, over dinner during the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup in England. He also revealed he handed £77,000 over to the players from the £150,000 he received from an undercover News of the World reporter. The figures he was asked to distribute were: £2,500 to Amir,£10,000 to Butt and £65,000 to Mohammad Asif.

Asif was paid the larger amount to guarantee that he remained loyal to the fixing racket within the team and was not persuaded to go elsewhere. It is possible that the inference was that Asif could be lost to another fixing racket within the Pakistan team.

LONDON: Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif and agent Mazhar Majeed were all jailed on Thursday for their parts in fixing parts of a Test match against England.

Cricket agent Majeed, 36, from Croydon in south London, received the harshest penalty with a sentence of two years and eight months, Judge Jeremy Cooke ruled at London's Southwark Crown Court.

Pakistan former Test captain Salman Butt, 27, received 30 months, fastbowler Mohammad Asif, 28, received one year in jail and 19-year-old Mohammad Amir was jailed for six months.

"These offences, regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice," Cooke told the four in court.

He added: "Each of you will serve half the time imposed in custody and then be released on licence."

Butt and Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of deliberately bowling three no-balls during the Lord's Test in August 2010 as part of a "spot-fixing" betting scam uncovered by Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World.

Amir and Majeed had already pleaded guilty to involvement in the scam.